In all of these cases, a well-managed drugs and alcohol awareness policy should have explained the testing procedure and what to expect. This would help alleviate some of your concerns. The most common forms of workplace drugs testing involve taking a sample of saliva or urine in a professional and discreet manner. If oral fluid testing is on the cards, then fear of saliva is a real condition.
It usually affects people with obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD. Individuals with this condition may fear not just their own saliva but the saliva from other people. They may also have phobias of other bodily fluids and waste products, including blood, urine and other excretions.
For many with saliva phobia, this obsessive behaviour is uncontrollable without mediation and psychological counselling. Fear of gagging, a sensitive gag response and emetophobia a phobia that causes overwhelming, intense anxiety pertaining to vomiting can also cause issues for individuals asked to perform an oral fluid test.
Some people cannot cope with anything being in their mouth and there are physiological causes which can predispose or cause a person to gag. These include not being able to breathe through your nose properly, catarrh, sinusitis, nasal polyps, mucus in the upper respiratory tract, a dry mouth, and medications that cause nausea as a side effect. Certain medical conditions gastrointestinal diseases can also contribute to gagging.
If saliva phobia or fear of gagging are real concerns then an alternative testing method may be advised, or counselling initiated. Shy bladder syndrome known as paruresis is when you have trouble urinating when other people are around. As such, the use of a urine drugs test could be avoided, or at the very least, postponed.
This common social phobia is psychological and not a physical condition because nothing is wrong with the urinary tract. However, the urinary sphincter must be relaxed in order for urine to flow from the bladder down the urethra. Treatment involves graduated exposure therapy, perhaps three or four times per week. It is advisable to drink plenty of water before any practice session to make sure that your bladder is full.
Individuals with OCD may also object to providing a urine test. Oral fluid testing may be advised as an alternative to a urine test. One of the major reasons for refusing to take a drugs test is because an individual does not want it made aware that he or she is on prescribed medication. This could be antidepressants, for example, and the employee is concerned that there may be stigma associated with mental health issues. Alternatively, you may be worried that any medication you are taking will interfere with the drug testing result.
It could even be that the drugs you are taking cause drowsiness and could impair your ability to do your job? A good company has a duty of care to support its employees by assigning other duties, if necessary.
Bear in mind that if you refuse a drugs test, you may face disciplinary action. Drug test samples are usually collected by trained sample collectors who should follow the correct company procedure.
This involves the trained collector checking your ID, performing an adulteration check, and sealing the pot or collection device with tamper-tape.
Should your concerns need to be investigated, the likelihood is that the test will need to be repeated, or another test method proposed.
If the worst-case scenario happens and you fail a company drugs test you could face disciplinary action or be dismissed. If the company has a zero tolerance policy to drugs, just the positive test could be seen as gross misconduct and you could be dismissed immediately or suspended while there is an investigation.
This is most likely to be the case if your job is safety-critical, such as driving or operating machinery. In such a case, specialist advice from an employment solicitor may be in order. If you are a member of a trade union, you should also check if you are able to get free representation through them.
Can you refuse a drugs test? You decline to take part. Jump to navigation. Some employees will be asked to take regular or random drug tests by their employers. The reason given for this is normally health and safety, so you are more likely to be tested for drugs if your job involves safety-critical work such as driving, operating machinery or looking after vulnerable people.
If your employer has decided to conduct random tests on employees, the tests should be genuinely random. Drug testing can be very complicated and different methods of testing can be used by employers. Employers can only drug test if there is a drug testing policy that the employee is aware of and agrees to.
This may be in your contract or staff handbook, both of which you should check to see if your employer can make you have a drug test. Sometimes drug testing policies are introduced after you have been working somewhere for a while — in this case you will have to accept this separately or agree to a change to your contract.
But now your employee is refusing to take the drug test. Beyond the already stated financial losses, it is your legal obligation to provide a safe and healthy work environment for your employees. Especially when you consider the effects of drug and alcohol use at work — lack of focus, poor concentration, aggression, unstable moods, lack of coordination, and unwanted sexual advances.
Clearly none of us wants an employee to exhibit these highly inappropriate behaviours. Doing so could lead to civil liability. Trying to reason or threaten your employee will rarely have any positive results. It is best to stick to well established rules and procedures. This is where a well-written and clearly-worded drug and alcohol policy comes in. David Dilger, an employment and safety lawyer at Edge Legal, believes companies could insist on drug testing as part of employment as long as it is reasonable.
An employee has to comply to a workplace drug test, provided that it is a lawful and reasonable direction, Dilger expplained. If they were to refuse, they could face disciplinary action and might even lose their job.
In some cases, a worker can get fired not because they failed a drug test but because a court or tribunal found them to be non-compliant with a reasonable policy. Dilger added that more modern alcohol and other drugs policies prioritise work health and safety rather than penalising employees. Workers who refuse to participate in drug testing could be considered in breach of their duty.
Their employers might take their refusal to be going against a policy meant to ensure the safety of their workplace.
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